One-piece nailless bridging members



March 30, 1965 E. F. XANTEN ONE-#PIECE NAILLESS BRIDGING MEMBERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 24. 1961 Inn/ ym? ELMER F X/J/VTE/V March 30, 1965 E. F. XANTEN 3,175,253

ONE-PIECE NAILLESS BRIDGING MEMBERS Filed Jan. 24. 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 M HI)" WI 0 w 40 /5 I/VI/E/VTQQ /0 5mm F M/V TEN United States Patent Ofiice 3,175,253 ONE-PIECE NAILLESS BRHDGENG MEMBERS Elmer F. Xanten, 1% Lawn llace, Rockford, ill. Filed Jan. 24, 1961, Ser. No. 84,575 1 Claim. (til. 20-3) This invention relates to a new and improved one-piece nailless bridging of metallic construction, designed for installation in a novel manner between joists to save time and expense in building construction and avoid the numerous objections that were common to the various nailed types, among the more important advantages of the present bridging being:

(1) That it can be installed with a special installing device after the subfloor or finished floor is laid, or even after the rest of the construction has been finished, thereby enabling application of such bridging in many places where the original bridging is either inadequate or unsatisfactory;

(2) That each bridging-piece, by virtue of its novel onepiece construction and the novel way in which it is installed, forms a solid tight compression member furnishing maximum strength and rigidity to the structure, as contrasted with most other bridging where the members generally require loading before they are under compression, and in many instances, actually constitute tension members, which, of course, furnish no support until there is sufdcient sag under load to place such members under compression, thereby eliminating squeaky and sagging floors, the present bridging, which is normally tight already, actually tightening further as any additional floor load is applied or joists shrink or swell, and

(3) That each one-piece channel-shaped sheet metal bridging piece, being bent in an arc of appreciable radius at the middle and having elongated straight end portions with protruding sharpened ends formed on the web portion for anchoring in the joists, is capable when straightened by means of the specially designed installing device of assuming heavy compression loads endwise thereof without danger of buckling, so that a floor may be safely overloaded without fear of sagging, the heavier the floor load, the more compressed the bridging is, and the more even the distribution of load.

The installing device, for economy and simplicity, is manually operated, but with very little additional cost for hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical equipment for the actuation of the reciprocable straightener clement, could be power operated, and in the manually operated form, this device has a stationary handle on the one side of the leg of the T-shaped frame thereof, and a pivoted handle that is arranged to be swung toward the first-mentioned handle from the other side of the leg of the T-s'naped frame to pull the T-shaped straightener element toward the crossportion of the T-shaped frame by means of a link connection with the inner end of said element, whereby to straighten the generally Vshaped bridging piece that has been set in the device resting at its ends on the ends of the cross-portion of the T-frame with its arcuate middle portion bearing against an abutment defined by the crossportion of the T-shaped straightening element, so that as the bridging piece is straightened its sharpened ends are pressed into the neighboring joists, one end of the crossportion of the T-frame being provided with a fork to fit onto the edge portion of one of the two joists for support during the installation of the bridging piece and to insure uniform application of the bridging to the joists.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- FIG. 1 is a side view of the generally V-shaped onepiece bridging piece in its shorter bent form as furnished ready for the installation thereof;

3,175,253 Patented Mar. 30, 1965 FIGS. 2 and 3 are a side view and edgewise view of the straightened bridging piece as it appears full length when installed;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the installation device in operation;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are a face view and cross-section on the line bb of FIG. 4A of a suitable carrier for the onepiece bridging pieces shown in FIG. 4 designed to fit on the operators belt;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the manually operable installation device, looking at the other side that does not show in FIG. 4, and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view, similar to a portion of FIG. 4, illustrating the bridging pieces as they appear when installed in criss-crossed relationship between floor joists, portions of this view being enlarged to better illustrate the way in which the sharpened ends on the bridging pieces are imbedded in the joists.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts throughout the views.

Referred to FIGS. 1 to 4, the reference numeral 7 designates an elongated channel-shaped die-formed generally V-shaped sheet metal bridging made in accordance with my invention, each piece 7 having sharply pointed ends formed as extensions of the web portion 9 for anchoring in the wooden joists 10 when the arcuately bent middle portion 11 has been straightened in the installation operation using a device like that shown at 12. This device is specially designed to lit the bridging pieces 7, so that in the straightening of the arcurately bent middle portion 11 of each piece, the pointed ends 8 are driven into the neighboring joists and the straightened bridging piece is left under endwise compression, more or less, depending upon how deeply the pointed ends have been thrust into the joists in the installation operation. The square cut ends 13 of the longitudinal flanges 14 on each bridging piece 7 also imbed their sharp corners 15 in one of the joists for good anchorage, as seen at the right in FIG. 6,

but, of course, these square ends are not as easily forced into the wood as the triangular-shaped points 8, and, as a result, the bridging pieces 7, when straightened in the installation thereof, are placed under appreciable endwise compression. This is highly desirable for the purposes contemplated, because it means that if the door 16 is subjected to heavy loading, there is less likelihood of the joists sagging, due to the fact that the load is nicely distributed through these bridgings, and, if an excessive load is imposed, the bridgings in the vicinity of the load will be impressed a little farther into the joists and thereby afford increased resistance to sag. The longitudinal flanges l4 reinforce each bridging piece 7 enough to eliminate any likelihod of a straightened piece buckling under load in any direction. If the door is overloaded, the bridging pieces in the vicinity of the overload are more apt to become more deeply impressed in the joists than they are to buckle, thereby oflfering a distinct advantage over the old conventional wooden bridging, which, in such situations, generally tore loose at the nails, leaving the floor supported only by the unbridged joists.

The installation device 12 comprises a generally T- shaped frame 17, having a fixed handle 18 rigidly attached to a laterally extending arm on one side of the leg portion 19 of the T, as indicated at 20. A movable handle 21 is carried on an arm 22 disposed in transverse relation to the arm 25) and pivotally connected at the extremity thereof, as at 23, to the arm 20 intermediate the ends thereof. Arm 22 extends transversely with respect to the end of the leg 19 and has a link 24 pivotally connected at one end, as at 25, to the arm 22 intermediate the ends thereof, the other end of the link being pivotally connected, as at 26, to one end of the elongated leg of a slidable T-shaped straightening element 27, the leg being a; slotted longitudinally, as at 28, and guided by means of a pair of studs 29 for sliding movement endwise of the leg 19 of the T-frarne 17. A separate cross-piece 3% forms the cross-portion of the T of element 27 and is pivotally connected intermediate its ends, as at 31, to the outer end of the leg of the T-shaped straightening element 537, and has a channel 32 extending the full length of the inner side thereof for reception of the arcuately bent middle portion 11 of a bridging piece 7 preliminary to the installation thcreo, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 5. The longi tudinal flanges 14 on the bridging piece have abutment on opposite sides of the opposite end of the cross-portion 33 of the T-frame 17, as indicated at 34 and 35 in FIG. 5, so that the bridging piece is held firmly enough at the start of a straightening operation to eliminate any likelihood of its dropping oil the device while the operator is getting the device into the proper position between a pair of joists for installation of the bridging piece, and there is thereafter no danger of the bridging piece slipping out of the device during the straightening operation. A slidably adjustable elongated channel member 36 fits on the back of the cross-portion 33 of frame 17 at one end, and a threaded stud 37 on cross-portion 33 extends through a longitudinally extending slot 38 in the web of the chain nel, so that a wing-nut 39 threaded on the stud may be used to clamp the channel member 35 in a selected po tion of endwise adjustment, where the beveled outer 40 of the channel member provides the desired bearing support for one end of the bridging piece '7, while the other end of the bridging piece is disposed next to t le forked or U-shaped other end 41 of the cross-portion 33 that fits onto the lower edge of a joist, as illustrated in FIG. 4, in the installation of the bridging piece.

In operation, at least the subfioor 42 is all laid, if not the finish fioor 16, before the one-piece nailless compression-type steel bridging 7 of my invention is installed, using the installation device 12. While I have shown the device 12 as operable manually, similar devices adapted to be held inplace similarly by hand but operated otherwise by power for the bending operation on the bridging may be used, as was previously indicated. The device 12 is held in the position shown in FIG. 4 for the installation of bridging pieces that slope from left to right, the forked or U-shaped end 41 of the cross-portion 33 of the T- shaped frame being engaged in such instances on the bottom edge of the righthand one of a pair of joists. in the installation of the other bridging pieces that slope from right to left, the device 12 is reversed and the forked or U-shaped end 41 of the cross-portion 33 is placed on the bottom edge of the lefthand one of a pair of joists. Once the device 12 is placed in the proper position between the joists, it is a simple matter to force the handle 21 toward the handle 18 to straighten the bridging piece 7, and thereby anchor it in place between the joists abutting its opposite ends, after which the operator simply spreads the handles enough to disengage the cross-member 30 from the bridging piece, whereupon the device 12 can be removed and made ready for the installation of the next bridging piece. As the device 12 is moved into place, if the cross-member 30 comes into abutment with the subfloor 42, as shown in FIG. 4, it will assume the angularity shown without letting go of the middle portion of the bridging piece. In many instances, the joists are large enough so that the space between joists is big enough to keep the cross-member 36 clear of the subfioor 42, in which cases the cross-member 30 will not be tilted. All of the bridging required on a given job is usually of the same length so that once the channel bearing member 36 for the remote end of the bridging piece 7 from the forked or U-shaped end 41 of the cross-portion 33 has been adjusted to the required position, it will require no further adjustment.

While it is true that the cost per pair of the present onepiece compression-type steel bridging is approximately double the cost of a pair of wooden bridging of a comvases parable size the difference in cost is more than made up in the saving in the labor cost of installation, because it takes approximately five minutes per pair for installation by nailing of the old conventional wooden bridging as compared with approximately one minute per pair on the present bridging. Hence, the cost of the installation device is usually made up in savings on one job.

To speed up installation of the one-piece bridging, a carrier 43 adapted to hold six or more bridging pieces '7 may be provided having a spring clip 44 riveted as at 45 to the back thereof for easy attachment to the belt 46 on the operators waist. This carrier, which has a generally -shaped bottom wall 47 conforming to the V of the bridging pieces 7 and has vertical channels 48 on its opposite ends to receive and enclose the pointed ends 8 of the bridging pieces for protection of the operator against accidental scratching or cutting by contact, can be made of inexpensive cardboard or plastic material so that such carriers can be furnished by the manufacturer of the bridging pieces at no additional charge, or the small cost of one of these carriers may be counted in as part of the overall cost of a box of say bridging pieces so that the user will feel free to discard a carrier when it has been used long enough to get battered or bent out of shape to some extent.

it is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of the objects and advantages of my invention. The appended claim has been drawn to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

A one-piece metallic bridging member for application at opposite ends to the sides of neighboring parallel wooden joists, comprising an elongated straight channel strip of appreciable and uniform width and thickness bent intermediate its ends so as to define a wide angle V that is capable, in straightened form, of supporting appreciable compression loading endwise thereof without buckling, said strip having a longitudinally extending web portion connecting opposed longitudinally extending parallel flanges on the inner side of the V, said strip being of an over-all length in straightened form appreciably greater in length of web than the length of a diagonal line between the points of ultimate abutment with the aforesaid nei hboring joists upwardly from the lower edge portion of one joist and downwardly from the upper edge portion of the other joist, said strip having the opposed end portions of its web extending beyond the flanges and tapered to substantially triangular form for impression into the wood of said joists in the straightening of the bridging member, the ends of the flanges being of substantially right angle form to define sharp corners which, at least at one end of the bridging member, will also be impressed into wood of a joist along with the substantially triangular end of the web at that end of said member, the bend to define the V being on an arc of appreciable radius with a view to less deformation and consequent weakening of the longitudinal flanges in the bent portion, whereby to reduce likelihood of buckling of said member at the straightened intermediate portion under endwise compression loading of said member after the straightening thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,212,172 Beckner et al Jan. 16, 1917 2,037,223 Fischer Apr. 14, 1936 2,388,811 Zatko Nov. 13, 1945 2,415,208 Greenberg Feb. 4, 1947 2,447,915 Sisk Aug. 24, 1948 2,484,043 Malen Oct. 11, 1949 2,593,042 Lynskey Apr. 15, 1952 2,617,154 Sutton Nov. 11, 1952 2,624,080 Eichenlaub Ian. 6, 1953 2,852,824 Kilpatrick Sept. 23, 1958 2,867,854 Aiken Jan. 13, 1959 2,956,715 Henderson Oct. 18, 1960 

